It's good to have Ron back with
us. He and Trish been on vacation,
and we always miss them when they're gone. Chuck and Susan
were in the same vicinity, I think, and they're still vacationing
a little bit, and we miss them. Also, thank you, Ron, for reading
and praying for us. Let's go back now to 2 Kings
chapter 5. Now, this entire story is about the grace of God to
the unworthy. It's about sovereign grace, grace
that reigns. Grace said, as I said this morning,
grace that conquers the sinner. Here we have an ungodly heathen
general. His name is Naaman. And he's
a great man in many ways. But he had a serious issue. He was a leper. Aren't you thankful that our
Lord is the great physician of spiritual lepers? Our Lord Jesus,
he came and by his bloody sacrifice, he washed away all the sins of
all of his people. He purged us. of our guilt and
of our sin. The Spirit of God comes to us
in the time of regeneration and teaches us who the Savior is
and teaches us that which was necessary in order for us to
be presented thoughtless before a holy God, the Savior himself. joined to our flesh, faced death
as the God-man upon whom all the iniquities of his people
had been made to meet. My iniquities, your iniquities. And he suffered the infinite
wrath of God. The Spirit of God teaches us. This is the way the God of the
Bible heals spiritual lepers. And I hope that if you have not
been shown your leprosy as of yet, that God will show you. No matter how honorable you may
appear to be in the sight of others, like this man, you have
a dreadful disease. That is, it outweighs everything. It's his leprosy. And that's
what you've got. And that's what I've got. But
thank God there's a remedy. And the remedy is the bloody
death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So this entire
story, understand this from the beginning, it's about God's free
and sovereign grace to sinners. And we're thankful our Lord is
the great physician of leprous sinners. This is his specialty. I was visiting with a lady this
week, and I was down visiting with Mackie, and we went across
the hall to visit another lady. And she was talking about she'd
seen me on the internet. And I was thankful for that. I said, I'm glad that you listen
sometimes and you watch. And I said, I try to preach Jesus
Christ and him crucified. And she said, he's the one we
need. He's the answer to all our problems. Let me tell you something. Our
biggest problem is our leprosy. That has no cure by mortal man. This is a cure that God devised
in old eternity. There's only one way God can
take a sinner and make him righteous. That's through the doing and
the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this story, we see how
the God of the Bible saves sinners. He's the one who does it. You know, mercy is given according
to the sovereign will of God. And the very best commentary
on this is not Arthur Pink, it's not John Gill, it's our Lord
Jesus. He gave the very best commentary
on this. It's found in Luke chapter four.
You wanna look at it with me? Luke chapter four, let me show
you this. Because you see in 2 Kings chapter
five, this is an illustration of God's sovereign mercy and
grace. He didn't heal every leper, but
he did heal one. and he healed the one that he
had chosen to heal before the world began. And this context, and I don't
have time to delve into this a great deal here, but our Lord
Jesus makes it known to those who have an eye to see and an
ear to hear that he is the prophet of God. Verse 24, Luke 4. He said, verily I say unto you,
no prophet is accepted in his own country. He is that prophet
that Moses spoke about. And then our Lord Jesus, who
is the prophet, he's going to mention two much lesser prophets
that he used in the Old Testament, Elijah and Elisha. And he speaks of God's free and
sovereign grace. Look at verse 25, but I'll tell
you of a truth, and remember he's speaking to the Jews. The
Jews who, they thought they had a leg up on everybody else. They felt like they were the,
since they were the chosen people of the Lord, they had a right
To expect everything good from God and the Gentiles, nothing
good for them. And our Lord begins to speak
to this self-righteous crowd that thought the sun rose and
set on them. Verse 25, he says, but I tell
you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias
or Elijah. This is when the heaven was shut
up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout
all the land. But unto none of them, a bunch
of widows in Israel, but unto none of them was Elijah sent
except unto a place called Sarepta, a city in Sidon, unto a woman
that was a widow, in other words, to a Gentile widow. This is an
illustration of God's sovereign grace. The Jews thought, well,
we have all the rights. We have everything coming to
us. Kind of like a lot of people in religion today feel like.
You know, if I accept Jesus as my personal Savior, then God's
just gonna give me a blank check and I just fill it out any way
I want to. I have a right. That's kind of
like the attitude of many people in our country. We have rights,
you know. That's the way the Jews felt. But our Lord said, you don't
have any right to heal him. I heal whom I will. Just like
he saves whom he will. He doesn't owe you anything.
He doesn't owe me anything. What we got coming? Oh, I just
want what's coming to me. Really? Death? Judgment? Everlasting darkness
and hell? That's what we got coming naturally. Isn't that right? I don't want what's coming to
me. I want him, him who bore all my sins upon the cross of
Calvary. I need him, I want him. He's
the one I want. He's the one I need. And then
verse 27, and many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha,
the prophet. See now here's the commentary
on 2 Kings 5. This is what that's all about.
A lot of people read that story. I remember when I was growing
up in a Baptist church down in Bassett, Virginia, I heard this
story, but nobody ever said to me, this story is about God's
free and sovereign grace, that he saves whom he will, that he
deals in mercy with whom he will. that He gives His salvation to
whom He will. I never heard that. But this is what it's all about.
And if you miss that, right from the get-go now, right from the
beginning of the message, I'll say, if you miss that, you've
missed the meaning of the whole story. The Savior says many lepers were
in Israel, many of them. And that was in the time of Elisha,
the prophet. And he ministered to the northern
kingdom. This morning I was talking about
the southern kingdom. Elisha's up in the northern kingdom. And none of them, none of them
were cleansed, except one, Naaman. a Gentile, a Syrian. And then these Jews that felt
like they had a right to every good thing and the Gentiles deserved
all the bad things. These religious Jews, these self-righteous
Jews, all of them in the synagogue, in church that Saturday, when
they heard these things, sovereign grace filled them with wrath.
That's not fair. And they rose up and they thrust
him out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill whereupon
their city was built, intending to cast him down headlong and
burst his brains out. But he, passing through the midst
of them, went his way. Many lepers in Israel. None of them were sent to God's
preacher. Just a heathen general. Man didn't know anything about
God. Man who was an enemy of Israel. In fact, he was involved in the
Syrian defeat of Israel's army. And if you do a little bit of
reading, there are some who think that this man Naaman was the
one who shot the arrow at a venture and it killed King Ahab. This
is a man who he's a sworn enemy of Israel. And that's the one
God healed because he dispenses his favors according to his sovereign
good pleasure. And I'm telling you tonight,
if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're one of the poor
lepers to whom the Savior has revealed Himself. And you found
that it's by His bloody death that He saved sinners, satisfied
divine justice, put away the sins of all of His people, brought
in everlasting righteousness. If you're the ones who believe
Him, You're a leper who's been fully, thoroughly cleansed by
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So as we go back here to 2 Kings
chapter five, I want you to understand what this
is all about. And I'll tell you, just like
Ne'eman, he was—he balked. He wasn't happy about the way
whereby he'd be cleansed. Man, I'm not going to go dip
down seven times in that nasty river. We got a couple of rivers
here that are really pure. Well, you'll go dip in the Jordan
River seven times or you can just remain a leper. You'll be saved God's way and
be made willing, willing to be saved God's way or you'll perish. You better not have your own
ideas of how you can be cleansed. That's Nahum's problem. He's
got a better way. There's not a better way. There's
the only way. That's God's appointed way. And
Christ our Savior, He is the way to God. He's the only way. He's the single, solitary way. Jesus Christ in Him crucified,
buried, risen again, ascended, exalted King. He's the only way
to God. You come any other way, it's
a way of death. It's a way of destruction. Now let me ask you a couple questions.
Did the waters of the Jordan River have any power in themselves
to cure Naaman of his leprosy? Some of these television preachers,
not this television But some of these television preachers
say, write in. I'm gonna send you a little bit
of water from the Jordan River. You send a gift to this ministry. The bigger the gift, the bigger
the vial of water. And you put it on your rheumatism
or arthritis. You put it on there, make an
application of it. There wasn't any power in the
Jordan River to cleanse Naaman of his leprosy. Who ever heard of a man dipping
seven times in a muddy river to lose his leprosy? And whoever heard of a sinner
looking to the Savior in his cross death, and that's the means
whereby he'll be cleansed and washed and saved and made righteous? Whoever heard of such a way?
But that's God's way. There is no other way. Jordan River didn't have any
power to cure. There's no virtue in it. Well, let me ask you another
question. If Naaman had not gone down, let's say roughly 25 miles to the Jordan River, if he had
not gone down and dipped seven times, would he have lost his
leprosy? No. You'll come to Christ Jesus
as a needy sinner or you'll perish in sin. and you'll come empty-handed. Oh, this Syrian king, Ben-Hadad,
he loaded down Naaman with silver and gold. But nor silver nor gold hath
obtained our redemption. That's the reason I picked out
that song for us to sing tonight, see? Don't you love it when a
plan comes together? God can't be bribed. God can't
be bought. Nothing you do, nothing you do
is gonna win God's favor. If you're one of his people,
you've had God's favor forever. That's God's eternal grace given
to you in Christ before the world began. This was the method God
chose. And I'm telling you, salvation
by substitution and satisfaction, that's the method God chose.
And you try to come any other way, try to wash your sins away
some other way, you'll die in your sins. You'll die in your
sins. Well, who is Naaman? And I won't
take much time here. He's a Gentile. an enemy of Israel,
one of the captains of the army of the king of Syria, Ben-Hadad. I'd call him a five-star general. He had a position of great prominence. He was at the very summit of
his profession. I mean, you couldn't get any
higher. He had climbed the ladder of success. He is a great man with his master,
with the king. Faithful, faithful servant to
King Ben-Hadad. The king highly respected him. Honorable, this man was. Gifted, courageous, valiant. God gave him great success in
his military career, because look at what it says in verse
1. Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was
a great man with his master and honorable, because by him the
Lord, the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. Who enabled Naaman and his army
to conquer Israel? The Lord did. The Lord did. He governs in all things, even
when the enemy of Israel attacks them, and even when King Ahab
tried to disguise himself as King Jehoshaphat of the southern
kingdom, And the Syrians said, wait, that's not the king we're
after there. And they said, well, we just
give up. We're not going to get King Ahab. And so that's when, according
to tradition, Naaman said, well, I got one more arrow, and I'm
just going to shoot it as a venture. And it found its way in the heart
of King Ahab. He's a mortal enemy of Israel. A mighty man, so many outstanding
qualities. He probably had all kind of badges
and medals hanging on him. He probably rattled when he walked,
don't you reckon? All these awards he had, awards
for markmanship. Valor honored by the king. But he had one great big problem. And it cast a shadow over everything. And evidently it hadn't begun
to reveal itself outwardly. Only this man knew about it.
He kept it covered up. He was a leper. and there was no cure. He's got fame, he's got fortune,
he's got popularity, but he's got a deadly disease.
That's us, isn't it? And no matter how honorable you
may be, how many so-called victories you've had in your life over
this or that, how far you've advanced yourself in your career,
There's a shadow that hangs over you and hangs over me. It's the shadow of spiritual
leprosy. It's there and it's gonna kill
you if God wills to let it run its
course. Because sin, when it's finished,
bringeth forth death. That's all of us. And leprosy, you see, is a picture
of sin. It was inherited, so I've read,
a communicable disease, poisoned the blood, readily transmitted
from parent to child, so is sin. You see, the reason your children
and your grandchildren misbehave and lie and cheat and steal,
we try to teach them don't do those things, but isn't it amazing
kids know naturally how to do those things? You don't need
to polish those skills. You're born with them. But mom
and dad and grandma and grandpa, they got those skills from you,
if you want to call them skills. Well, this man, Naaman, he found
out about God's preacher, God's prophet. In the second verse, it says
that the Syrians had gone out. They'd make quick raids by little
companies. And they brought away captive
out of the land of Israel, a little maid, a young girl. And she waited on Naaman's wife. They raided camps of Israel,
little villages, killed the men and take the women and the children
captive. And this little maid, she has
no name. She's not even given a name.
But she wound up in the household of Naaman taking care of his
wife. And I'm sure that when she was taken captive, that
the people in her family grieved, grieved over that loss, not realizing all things are
under the sovereign dominion of our God. Because you see, wherever there's
one of God's elect, there's going to be a messenger to send the
message to them. She's a little maid. Naaman is
a great man. Naaman's got a name. She isn't even given a name here
in the scriptures. But God used her. You see, all
things are under the sovereign dominion of God. And anybody
who has anything to do with you They have something to do with
you because of God's eternal purpose. That's just a fact. And it may be painful. It's painful
for her family. Painful for her mama. I'm sure
wept a bucket of tears over the loss of this young maid. But we have to remember, oh children
of God, and may the Holy Spirit remind us of this always, we
are where we are, we're in the circumstances in which we find
ourselves in the circumstances because God who governs all things
deemed it best for you to be in this position. And it may be that you'll never
know how God uses the people that he brings into your life. But it should be good enough
for us to know that nobody can have anything to do with us and
nothing can affect us in some way but what back behind it all
is an all-wise, loving, heavenly father. That ought to help us. It ought to help us. Well, she told her, the mistress
of the house, I sure wish Mr. Naaman could go up to Samaria,
because there's a preacher there. He's God's servant. So as we have read, as Ron read
to us, Naaman is sent to Samaria. And let me, can I tell you one
more thing about this young girl? I hold her in admiration, because
I don't think I'd be willing to help somebody that took me
into captivity. I'm just being honest. Probably
you, you're more saintly than I am. You'd probably been like
this girl, but I'd said, hey, tell you what, he made his bed,
let him lie in it. He's a leper, let him die a leper. That'd probably be my attitude.
That wouldn't be yours, would it? Y'all are much better than
I am. You're nicer people. She didn't
hold a grudge. Don't you either. I don't care
what somebody has done to you, what somebody has said to you.
It's like David, when that fella cursed him and is ready to stone
him to death, David said, wait! He couldn't have done that. unless
God said, curse David. It's not for us to retaliate
against those who are our enemies. God will deal with them if they
need to be dealt with, and maybe we need to be dealt with. It
could be us, could be us. But anyway, I gotta go further
here. So what did Nahum do? He went to King Ben-Hadad, explained
to him what the little maid had said, and the king loaded him
with money. There in verse 5, 10 talents
of silver, 6,000 pieces of gold, and 10 changes of raiment, 750
pounds of silver, and 150 pounds of gold, and 10 changes of raiment. loaded him down, and then he
goes to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said,
I can't help you. What, you think I'm God? The
power to give life, to maintain life, to give health? I'm not
a physician. And word reached Elisha. He heard the king and were in
his clothes. And then Elisha found out what
was going on. And so Elisha said, tell him
to come see me. So he did. He's got his entourage. He's somebody. He's really important. And he gets off his horse, walks up to the prophet's house,
and knocks on the door. You know, he expected the prophet
of God to come out and mumbo-jumbo and abracadabra and be a big
healing service. That's what he's going to be,
going to be a healing service. And if Elisha had been like most
of the television preachers, he'd have said, make me look
good for my television audience. We're going to have us a healing
service because a five-star general, he's got to be healed and I'm
going to heal him. That's what most preachers would
have done because they want to lighten the light. I thought he'd come out here
and touch me in the forehead and I'd fall out in the spirit.
I'd be healed. Elijah didn't even go outside. One of his messengers went out.
He said, where's the preacher? Does he know who I am? Yeah,
he knows who you are. Well, what's he gonna do? Well,
he just, he sent me to tell you this. Go down to the River Jordan,
dip seven times and you'll be healed. And then the messenger
just shut the door. Old Naaman was, he was fit to
be tied. He left in a rage. Who's he think
he is? He know I'm a five-star general? And his servant said, now wait
a minute. I know you'd rather be dunked and rather dunk yourself
in the two rivers in Damascus, but why don't you do what he
said? Do what he said. And the general thought about
it, climbed off his high horse of pride, went down to the River Jordan,
waded into the water, and he was dunked. He dunked
himself seven times, and the seventh time he came up, perfect
cleansing. Oh, my dear friend, plunge into
the Bath of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll find
perfect cleansing. Flee to the Savior. He's the
only one who can help you. Boy, I tell you, he had the flesh of a little
child. He said, I'm going back to see
that preacher. And he went to the man of God,
he and his company, and stood before him, and then Elisha apparently
came out. He named him and said, I now
know. I know who God is. I found out
who God is. Bless the day when God shows
you who he is. It'll knock you off your high
horse of pride. You find out that Christ is the
only savior. He's the only one who can heal
you. You find out who he is and what
he did for you, you'll have a broken heart, but it'll be full of thanksgiving, full of joy. He said to the preacher, he said,
Let me give you some. I got money. I just want to pay
you. Elisha said, no, that's all.
I don't want anything. Well, he said, as the Lord lives, I don't want to take anything
you got. And in verse 16, he urged him to take it, and the
preacher refused. He's an unusual preacher. Because
most preachers have hands out. Yeah, give, give, give. We're
sitting at a restaurant today, and there's one of them false
prophets. They had him up on the television
screen, and they had a replay of a football game. And that's
a whole lot better than that false prophet up there. And he
had on the screen, send me $58, a seed gift. This God's preacher here, he
said, I don't want anything, you God. Lord did it. And Naaman said, I'll tell you
what I want you to give me. I want you to give me two big piles
of dirt, put up on a mule's back, Because
when I get back home, I'm going to build an altar. And I'm going to worship the
God who saved me, the God who cleansed me, the God who has
taken care of me, though I'm a rebel by nature. I want to
offer sacrifice to him. And you see, when God saves us
by his grace, we offer to God the sacrifice of praise. Right? Sacrifice of praise and
thanksgiving. And our whole selves, we're living
sacrifice. Romans chapter 12. Well, and then he said, In verse
18, in this thing the Lord pardoned thy servant. I want the Lord
to forgive me. When my master goeth into the
house of his God to worship and he leans on my hand and I bow
myself, when I bow myself to his false God, the Lord pardoned
thy servant. And I think it's John Gill who
said he's thinking about his worship of a false God. Oh, God
forgive me. Let me tell you something. God
forgives us of our worship of false gods before conversion. In fact, He just cleans the slate. And all of our unrighteousness
we then see, that's under the blood of Christ. And we're robed
in the King's beauty in His reign. So we go on our way rejoicing,
right? That's what we're gonna do now,
gonna go on our way rejoicing. Lord has healed us, poor lepers,
and we'll give him the praise. Well, let's go to 303.